Why All Families Matter

Why All Families Matter

The nuclear family is one of the most powerful forces supporting white supremacy. At least, that is the claim made by sociology professor Jessie Daniels at City University of New York. Daniels is a self-proclaimed “expert on Internet manifestations of racism.” She made this provocative claim on October 25 via Twitter.

“Part of what I’ve learned is that the white nuclear family is one of the most powerful forces supporting white supremacy,” she said in a tweet that has since been deleted.

Daniels argued in a series of tweets that “forming a white family” and having “white children” perpetuates racism by keeping wealth in white families. She even accused white people who formed families with multiracial children of promoting white supremacy by supporting “the family” as a conservative force within society. The only way Daniels believes people can fight white supremacy is by dismantling the nuclear family altogether.

“White people: do you own your home?” she asked. “When you die, where’s wealth in that house going? If it’s to your children, you’re reproducing [inequality].”

Daniels spoke favorably of the Marxist-feminist critique of the family. So the fact that she believes the nuclear family needs dismantling should not be surprising. (Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, the fathers of communism, taught that abolishing private property would lead to the withering away of the traditional family.) What is surprising is how widespread the idea that the “nuclear family” promotes “white supremacy” has become among social justice warriors.

Even the influential activist group Black Lives Matter is promoting this idea. One of the 13 “Guiding Principles” listed on the Black Lives Matter website states: “We disrupt the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure requirement by supporting each other as extended families and ‘villages’ that collectively care for one another, especially our children, to the degree that mothers, parents, and children are comfortable.”

Black Lives Matter was allegedly founded to protest the shooting of black men by police officers. Yet it supports the same “Marxist-feminist” ideals espoused by Daniels. It believes that “the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure” must be dismantled to build a world of perfect equality.

The irony is that disrupting “the Western-prescribed nuclear family” is actually the root cause of most of the problems faced by the United States’ black community. Only 34 percent of black children are currently raised in a home with married fathers and mothers, down from 67 percent in the 1960s. According to the National Center for Fathering, children who grow up without a father figure are four times likelier to be poor, nine times likelier to drop out of school, 11 times likelier to commit violent crimes, and 20 times likelier to be arrested.

There is a direct link between the fracturing of families and major societal problems.

“The bottom line is that the Black Lives Matter movement sees no role for black men other than media-hyped props to promote an agenda that excludes and undermines them,” wrote Roland Warren, president and ceo of Care Net. “As a black man, I find being used this way destructive, offensive and familiar. You see, for centuries the blood of black men has been used to advance the agenda and fortunes of others. And sadly, the founders of the Black Lives Matter movement are the latest to adopt this pernicious strategy. They seek to deny black men the right and honor that so many have died for—to be good husbands to their wives and good fathers to their children.”

Many media figures allege that racist police officers are selectively targeting innocent black Americans and killing them. But the plain truth is that the majority of people shot by police are criminals who grew up in a broken family. In fact, one thing that Islamic terrorists, Nazi skinheads and black gangbangers all have in common is that they most likely grew up in a broken family where their father was either abusive or absent.

A strong family built on the biblical model—with a faithfully married, family-focused father and mother intent on fulfilling their respective roles—is an ideal any clear-thinking person should treasure. Yet many today are trying to dismantle the biblically prescribed nuclear family by crying “patriarchy,” “toxic masculinity” or “white supremacy.”

These cries will not solve racism; they will only create more discouraged and angry young people likely to end up on the wrong side of the law. The greatest and most damaging conspiracy today is the conspiracy against fatherhood.